


Helping Professions

by were_lemur



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Case Fic, Gen, Season/Series 12
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 09:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13408428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/were_lemur/pseuds/were_lemur
Summary: Alex's new job leads her to a girl with an unbelievable story -- unbelievable to anyone who hasn't been raised by vampires, that is.





	1. The Kids Aren't Alright

**Author's Note:**

> Set sometime before "Ladies Drink Free."

Alex Jones blinked and rubbed her eyes, trying to stay awake enough to focus on her study guide. She was starting to regret taking the job in the group home. At first it had seemed ideal; working nights would leave her plenty of time for nursing school during the day. But now she hoped she would be able to stay awake in class tomorrow.

It felt like she'd just gotten used to being diurnal, after growing up with vampires.

She picked up her cup of coffee, only to find it empty. She was about to head to the kitchen to get some more, when the buzzer went off.

She headed down to the front door. A man and a woman in police uniforms sandwiched a grubby teenage girl in a gray hoodie that didn't look warm enough for the October weather. The girl, who looked about twelve or thirteen, stared defiantly through the glass.

Alex buzzed them in.

"Jane Doe we picked up over at the state park," the female officer said. "She'd been hanging around the campsite for God knows how long; it wasn't until the summer rush was over that the rangers realized she was on her own. She doesn't match any reported missing persons in the state; they're looking nationwide. They don't find anything, they'll ask our neighbors to the north. For now, though, she needs a place to stay."

"Right," Alex said, trying to remember the next steps. Always before, she'd been helping someone else check the girls in. "Um ... "

"Sign here," the male officer said, holding out a clipboard. Alex scribbled her name.

Once she'd officially taken custody of "Jane Doe," the officers left, and she was alone in the hallway with the girl.

"Hi. My name is Alex Jones. I'm a nursing student, and I'll be checking your vitals and getting you something to eat. There's a shower room, and I'm sure there will be some clothes that will fit you."

The girl nodded slightly.

"What's your name?"

"Jane Doe." Her voice was almost silent. She looked down, then gazed up at Alex, through eyelashes so pale they were almost invisible.

Alex led her back to the small infirmary. The girl watched warily as she got out the stethoscope, and logged into the computer.

"Is there something other than 'Jane Doe' that we can call you while you're here?"

Silence. The girl glanced toward the door, as if she was wondering if she could make it.

"The doors to the outside need a code to open, and there are two security guards on the premises." Alex pulled out the BP cuff, and tried to imitate Jody at her most reassuring. "You don't have to tell me your real name. Just what you'd like us to call you."

"Rey," she said. "With an E. R-E-Y," she clarified.

"Star Wars fan?"

The girl -- Rey -- nodded.

Rey-the-character had been abandoned to fend for herself. Was that what had happened to this Rey, too?

"Do you mind taking the hoodie off?"

Rey obeyed. Underneath, she wore a One Direction t-shirt that had once been white, but now was a dingy gray-brown. Still, she didn't smell as bad as she should have if she'd been without a shower for weeks or months.

Alex popped a thermometer into Rey's mouth and checked her blood pressure. Normal and normal. "Do you mind taking your shirt off?"

Rey obeyed. Under it, she was thin enough not to really need the training bra she wore, but not emaciated. She'd been managingto feed herself. Alex pressed her hand against the disk of the stethoscope to warm it.

Rey didn't flinch away from being touched, and Alex didn't see any bruises or signs of old injuries. She couldn't rule out abuse, of course, but neither did she see any clear signs of it.

When she checked the girl's throat, she didn't see as much gunk on her teeth as she would have expected. "Keeping up on brushing your teeth?"

Rey pulled a toothbrush out of her pocket. The bristles were going every which way. "I can get you a new one if you'd like."

Rey cradled the toothbrush protectively to her chest.

"Or not." Alex finished her brief exam, and Rey put her clothes back on.

"Are you hungry?"

Rey nodded emphatically, so Alex took her down to the kitchen and made her a pb&j. She wolfed it down, and Alex made her a second one. She finished that one too, and her eyes were starting to droop.

"I can take you to a bed now, unless you'd like a hot shower?"

"Shower first, then bed."

"Okay. Let's see what the clothes locker has in the way of pajamas."

After finding a flannel nightgown and issuing a set or briefs from stores, Alex waited while Rey showered. Really they were supposed to limit showers to seven minutes, but since there was no one else waiting, Alex let her stay in until the hot water ran out.  
She emerged, thirty-eight minutes later.

"I can take your old clothes -- "

"No!" Rey hugged them against her chest. They were, Alex suspected, the last connection to her life had been before she ended up fending for herself in a campground.

"I'm only going to wash them. That way they'll be clean when you wake up."

"Do you promise?"

"I promise," Alex said.

Mollified, Rey handed over the clothes. Alex checked the board and found a room with an empty bed. "You'll be bunking with Connie and Evelyn Standing Bear. Ev's got a big crush on, um, Neil Horan?"

"Niall," Rey corrected.

"The beds aren't the greatest, but -- "

"But they're _beds,_ Rey said.

In the trapezoid of light from the hall, Alex watched as Rey found her way to the unoccupied bed and crawled into it. Once the girl was settled, she went down and started the laundry, then typed out her report.

Before she left, she set the clean, folded clothes neatly on the foot of Rey's bed. Rey didn't even stir.

She managed to stay awake in class, and even aced a pop quiz, before heading home to fall into bed. Jody woke her at eight for a late dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. Once she'd finished the dishes, she had just enough time for a study session before heading back to the group home.

Before heading in, she texted Claire: _Miss you. Call me._ But she doubted that Claire would. She suspected that Claire was hunting, and was worried that she'd let something slip.

By the time she clocked in, everything was quiet. Lights out had been almost two hours ago.

She'd just poured herself a cup of coffee when the screaming started.

She raced toward the sound; Rey's room, she realized.

By the time she got there, the lights where on and the Standing Bear sisters where trying to comfort Rey. But she'd pulled away from them, into the corner where the bed was pulled against the wall.

"Hey," Alex said. "You're safe now."

As if she didn't know that that was a lie. That there were things out there that could get through the group home's defenses as if they were made of paper-mache.

Rey looked up at her, finally seeming to come fully awake. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake everybody." Tears overflowed, spilling down her cheeks.

"It's okay. It happens. Do you want to talk about it?"

Rey shook her head vehemently.

"Okay." She wasn't a therapist, anyway. "Do you want to go down to the kitchen and get some hot cocoa?"

Rey hesitated, but then nodded. She looked at Connie and Evelyn. "I'm sorry I woke you guys."

"It's okay," Connie said. "When she was three, this dork had nightmares about "Ratatouille" -- you know, the Disney movie? -- for like six months."

"Shut up," Ev said, pretend-glaring at her big sister.

Rey giggled a little. Then she got out of bed and followed Alex to the kitchen. Alex made the cocoa, and poured herself a cup of coffee, then settled across the table from her.

"It really does help if you talk about stuff," she said. "I'm not saying necessarily to me, but to someone."

"Someone like a shrink."

"There is a counselor here during the day. She can be pretty helpful if you need someone to talk to."

"So that means she knows if someone is crazy or not?"

Alex weighed her answer carefully. "She's a clinical social worker, so I don't know if she can diagnose mental illness. But she's a really good listener."

Rey stared down into her half-empty mug.

"She's gonna think I'm crazy."

Alex felt a tingle go down her spine, and remembered again just how lucky she had been to get arrested in Sioux Falls.

Anywhere else, and there would probably still be with Mama and have been a lot more dead people on her conscience.

"Did you see something that makes you think you're crazy?" Alex asked. "Because I've seen some crazy things in my time, and heard plenty of even crazier things."

Rey took a gulp of cocoa like it was a shot of whiskey. "Padded cell can't be too much worse than being locked in here, right?"

Alex was still fumbling for an answer to that one, when Rey started talking.

"My mom and dad and I come here to camp every year. They've been doing it since their honeymoon. We'd gotten packed up to go home, I went to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth, since I'd probably fall asleep in the car. It's only about a two-minute walk, but when I got out, this lady tried to grab me. I kicked her in the knee and ran. I headed the wrong way, and it took maybe fifteen minutes to get back to my campsite, but just as I got there, I saw my parents' Suburban pulling out. And in the backseat, there was a girl there who looked exactly like me. I mean, _exactly_."

She crossed her arms, and put her head down. "Are you going to put me in a padded cell, now?"

"No. Rey, no." Suddenly, things made a lot more sense. She hadn't been reported missing because this double, whatever it was, was still with her family.

Rey mumbled that she was tired, and Alex walked her back to her room, then went to the desk. She pulled out her phone, and was contemplating whether to call Jody about the case, or go straight to calling Sam, with his encyclopedic knowledge, when the phone rang so suddenly she yelped and almost dropped it.

"Hello?"

"I hope I'm right and you're still working nights," Claire said.


	2. Obscure Mythology

She'd never dealt with witches before, but after dealing with the coven in Green Bay, Claire Novak understood why Dean Winchester hated them.

She needed a shower, a burger, and about 20 hours of sleep. Not necessarily in that order.

She pulled out her phone to check the time, and saw the text from Alex. 

_Miss you. Call me._

She felt a sudden stab of guilt, that was completely different from the one she felt when Jody left messages for her. Jody, she was ducking because she didn't want to have to lie about hunting.

Since Alex had started working at the group home, just before the semester started, Claire had managed to not talk to her. How do you ask "how's work" when anything but the vaguest answer is going to bring back things you'd rather forget?

And she didn't think she could handle Alex's sympathy, or any questions she might have about growing up in the system.

She shoved the phone back in her pocket. She couldn't think until she'd had food, anyway. Food and coffee.

She hit the interstate and pulled off long enough to hit the first drive-through, and ate in her car, parked in the shadows, because "covered with human blood" was never a good look for anyone.

Guilt gnawed at her through her drive back to the hotel, while she laid the salt lines, and through her quick, disappointing shower. She stepped out of the lukewarm water, toweled off, and grabbed her dirty clothes. The phone tumbled out.

She wrapped the towel more securely, sat down on her bed, and called Alex, realizing just as it rang that she wasn't sure if this was one of the nights Alex was on duty.

"Hello?" Alex asked.

"I hope I'm right and you're still working nights," Claire said, cringing as she caught the unintentional rhyme.

"You're a poet and you don't even know it," Alex said, and then, "You're right. I'm at work. And I just had a really weird conversation."

"Our kind of weird?" Claire asked, and then cringed. Alex had made it clear that she didn't want to be a hunter, and Claire could, theoretically, understand that.

But before she could apologize, Alex said, "Yeah. She said that she was replaced by a double when she was on a camping trip. It went home with her parents, and she's been fending for herself for the past couple months."

"Jeeze." Claire's brain was already clicking, trying to figure out the best way to pretext herself in to interview the witness, but then screeched to a halt.

She was _not_ going to a freaking group home.

"Did the witness give you a specific date?"

"No."

"She mention anything else weird happening?"

"She said that right before it happened, a woman tried to grab her, but she escaped."

"Okay." She pulled out her laptop, logged onto the motel's free wifi, and then hit the shortcut to what would seem, to a a civillian, to be a website about obscure mythology. 

The hourglass icon on her screen drained virtual sand from top to bottom, flipped, and drained again.

"Sorry, it's taking its sweet time to load. I'm not sure if everybody else is streaming porn -- no pay-per-view here -- or if the wifi here just is that bad."

Alex laughed, but then sighed. "It's time for bed check. I have to go, I can call you back after or -- "

"I'm planning on crashing out pretty quick." She'd been on the alert for the past four days, and it was starting to catch up with her, coffee or not. "I'll let you know if I find anything."

"Okay. Don't be a stranger?"

After hanging up, she sat back on her bed and stared at the stupid hourglass icon, willing the site to load. Bored, she started counting the number of times it flipped.

She made it to seventeen before falling asleep.

* * *

She woke nearly eleven hour later, with a crick in her neck and her towel pooled around her waist, to find that the Men of Letters site had finally loaded. She clicked on the elongated, six-point star, and then entered the search parameters.

There were several options; she took notes of the more likely-sounding possibilities. There was an e-mail from Alex with a few more details, but nothing that would eliminate any of the options

Three hours later, she was back in South Dakota. She swung by the house, but was relieved that Jody wasn't there. She headed out to the state park, and spent an unsuccessful few hours trying to find any information on the girl, or what might have replaced her.

She also checked out the local papers, trying to see if there were any strange deaths, something that would have been the result of at least some of the possibilities.

She frowned, turning back to her journal. From what she'd read about changelings, they would kill anyone who was a threat, she didn't see any reports of unusual deaths locally. But if the mother changeling had started grabbing kids from a state park, the resulting deaths could be from all around the country -- maybe even the world.

That was one way of making sure no hunters noticed.

She hit the local Biggersons and used their wi-fi to pull the the Men of Letters website up again. The webmaster -- or webmistress, Claire decided, noting that the page had been created by _QueenofMoons_ \-- had set the pages up wiki-style, but most of the entries had no edits. This one, though, had a brief comment:

_The changeling we hunted in Indiana was posing as a Realtor and keeping the children she'd kidnapped in a house that had been abandoned during renovation._

So was she going to have to look at every abandoned house in South Dakota, or worse yet, the country?

"If the changeling is local, she's going to want to stay somewhere near enough to the campsite that it's convenient."

That was a big if, though.

But it was her best lead.

She picked up her phone, and scrolled through the contacts. She stared at Dean's number for a long moment, but she could just imagine the conversation. _"So, you and Sam hunted a changeling, could you tell me about that? Why? No reason, just curious."_

She had no illusions that they wouldn't call Jody immediately and tell her that she was hunting, and how could she face Jody then?

She shoved the phone in her pocket. She typed a quick e-mail to Alex, who was probably asleep, letting her know her theory and that the kid probably wasn't in any immediate danger.

Of course, if she'd been at the campground for the past few months and the mother changeling hadn't tried to kill her, didn't that imply that she wasn't around? Had she moved on, or did she only come there when she needed to feed?

She e-mailed Alex again, asking her to get more information from the girl; where had she stayed, could she describe the woman who'd tried to grab her?

By that time, her burger had arrived. She closed the laptop so she could give it the attention it was due.


	3. Witness Statement

After reading the e-mails from Claire, Alex headed in to work as soon as she was finished helping Jody wash up from dinner.

She still had almost an hour before lights-out, so she went in to talk to Rey. The girl excused herself from the animated chatting she'd been doing with Ev and a few of the other younger girls and followed her to the corner, so she wouldn't be overheard.

"You remember how I said I'd heard some weird things?"

"Yes?"

"My mom and my sister both hunt monsters. My sister did some research, and she thinks she's found out what's going on. There's a creature called a changeling; it can look exactly like a child."

Rey sagged against the table in obvious relief; maybe, Alex thought, she hadn't quite believed what she'd seen herself, until it was confirmed.

But then she straightened. "But what about my mom and dad?"

This was the tough part. "It will keep the mother alive to feed on, and as long as the father doesn't interfere, he won't be harmed."

"Feed on? As long as he doesn't interfere? What if they're dead already?"

"If you tell me your name, I can check the records."

Now, Rey hesitated.

"What's wrong?"

She looked around carefully, making sure no one was close enough to eavesdrop. "I've been here on my own for months, and my parents haven't reported me missing. Nobody's going to believe that I was replaced by my monster double; what if my parents get _arrested_?"

Alex could tell her that she wouldn't let it happen, but it would be a lie.

"Rey, I swear to you that I won't tell anyone else here who you really are."

"My parents are Jacob and Krista Olson. We lived -- live," she corrected herself, "in Lansing, Michigan."

A quick Google told Alex that Rey's father owned a Chevy dealership, and that he and her mother were active in the local Methodist church, and that they had one daughter, age twelve, named Britney. "They're both alive and well, according to their Facebook pages." 

Rey sagged in relief again.

"My sister had some questions for you. First, can you describe the woman that attacked you?"

"She looked about my mom and dad's age. Maybe a little younger. Dark brown hair in a French braid. She looked kind of hard, I guess?"

"What was she wearing?"

"Clothes? Sorry, I didn't notice."

"It's okay," Alex said. "You had other things on your mind. Did you see her again?"

"Twice. Both times I ran and found the biggest crowd I could."

"Where were you staying when you were on your own?"

"Different places. Sometimes I'd lock myself in one of the bathroom stalls, and there was a space under the visitor's center that I could crawl into . At first it wasn't too bad; it didn't get too cold. But the last week -- "

She was lucky she hadn't frozen to death.

Alex asked the rest of her questions, jotting down the answers as unobtrusively as possible, aware that she was probably breaking at least a few rules.

Then it was time for lights out.

"I'm going to be off tomorrow and Thursday night, but I'll stop by if I hear anything. Okay?"

"Okay," Rey said, and went to join the other girls.  
As soon as she got to the college, Alex transcribed Rey's answers into a reply to Claire's e-mail. By the time class was over, there was still no answer, and she dropped into bed.

*

She woke with a jolt, five hours later.

Jody's house had good wi-fi, so it didn't take long to load the source Claire had sent her on changelings. She read down the list, hoping that she'd just misunderstood.

But she hadn't. When the mother changeling went up in flames, their children did as well.

She could only imagine Rey's parents' reaction. They'd call the cops, the cops would put out a missing persons report, they'd find Rey, and everything that she'd worried about would happen.

She texted Jody saying that she wouldn't be home for dinner on her way to the car.

Waze said it would take over eleven hours to get there. She suspected that if Dean was driving, he could cut that in half. She only hoped she could get there soon enough.


	4. Saving People, Hunting Things

Canvassing, Claire thought, was her least favorite part of hunting. It was boring -- hours upon hours asking the same questions over and over. It was stressful -- worrying that she might make some civilian suspicious enough to call the real authorities, or worse yet, she might tip off the changeling.

So when she got the e-mail from Alex, she was more than happy to abandon the neighborhood to focus on the state park. At least there she didn't have to wear the thrifted pantsuit that kept riding up awkwardly.

She changed back into jeans in the restroom at the Gas'n'Sip, and hit the road.

*

Alex was shocked that she hadn't gotten pulled over for speeding yet. Though the day was still young. She was wondering if maybe she should have called Jody or the Winchesters in on the case.

It still wasn't too late.

But she doubted that they, or anyone else, would get there in time to do any good.

Besides, she wasn't going to be actually fighting a changeling. Just talking to Rey's parents.

*

Krista Olson shifted uncomfortably on the couch. She wished Jacob had canceled the meeting in Detroit. He'd been away more and more. "In sickness and in health, my ass," she muttered.

She felt sick all the time now, she ached, and worst of all, she felt that sometimes Britt was looking at her in a way that gave her the creeps.

What kind of mother felt like that about her child?

She stopped at her daughter's bedroom, one hand on the doorknob. She couldn't face her. Not tonight.

Instead, she headed down to the living room for another long night of watching infomercials.

*

Claire checked her supplies again. The improvised flamethrower, the knife and gun that were as much a part of her daily outfit as socks and underwear, a lighter that she'd made sure was filled.

Time to go.

She headed out into the twilit backcountry.

A few hours with the Google Earth had let her narrow down the likely places. She could probably hit them all tonight and hopefully, by tomorrow, Alex's new friend could go home.

If not, well, she'd set up an e-mail to go to Sam and Dean if she didn't cancel it by this time tomorrow. It would let them pick up where she left off.

She hoped, if the worst happened, that Alex and Jody didn't blame themselves.

"Okay," she muttered. "Enough with the morbid."

The first cabin proved to be a bust, and so did the second.

On the third try, though, she hit paydirt.

*

It was nearly midnight when Alex pulled into the Olsons' neighborhood in Lansing. Now, though, she was starting to wonder if she'd made a mistake. What could she do? Tell Rey's mom, _"so, your daughter is really in a group home in South Dakota, and you actually have a monster living with you?"_

She'd call the cops to report a crazy woman.

Maybe, Alex decided, she should just wait in the car and keep an eye on things. 

*

There was a car sitting outside.

Krista thought for a moment about calling the police, but Jacob was already worried about her grasp on reality, since she'd asked him, _does Britt seem different?_

"Mom?"

She looked up at her daughter, as she came down the stairs, passing by the covered mirror. (Britt had insisted, saying that she thought she looked "ugly," and the school therapist had suggested that they acquiesce because a lot of girls had body image issues.) Krista had to fight the atavistic impulse to run.

"What is it, sweetie?" Her voice sounded wrong to her own ears.

"There's a woman in a strange car parked outside. You should call the police."

Despite the fact that she'd been thinking the same thing earlier, hearing it from Britt had the opposite effect. "We can't just call the cops for nothing."

"But what if it's not nothing? What if it's somebody who wants to kill me?"

"Don't be silly, sweetheart." She heard the echo of Jacob's dismissive tone in her own voice, and cringed.

"Don't you love me, Mommy?"

*

Alex watched from the front seat of her car as the drama on the stairs played itself out. When the changeling that looked like Rey waved a hand in her direction, though, she realized what had happened.

The changeling has mistaken her for a real hunter, and was feeling threatened.

She couldn't just sit there and do nothing.

*

Claire picked the lock by feel and let herself into the cabin. Out this far, there wasn't any electricity. She kept her flashlight off, though; her eyes had adapted to the dark on the walk through the woods.

She moved carefully, quietly, and listened.

She heard crying. Not the upset crying of a child who expects to be soothed, but the soft crying of someone in despair. It took all of her willpower not to run directly to the sound.

It could be a trap.

Instead, she circled around, her flamethrower at the ready.

*

Alex knocked on the door, hoping she wasn't making the biggest mistake of her life.

Rey's mom answered it.

"Mrs. Olson, I know this is going to sound crazy, but -- "

"Mommy, call the police."

Seeing the changeling up close, Alex felt a chill go down her spine. It looked so like Rey but there were a few subtle details off. She wasn't quite as thin, and Alex could see that she was starting to develop breasts. Her skin was paler.

All the time Rey had been fending for herself, this _thing_ had been living off of her parents.

"Is something wrong?" Rey's mom asked.

"If you can just step out for a moment -- "

"It's after midnight. I really think you should tell me what's going on."

"I'm calling the cops," fake-Rey said.

Alex noticed, now, the covered mirrors. She stepped past Rey's mother and pulled the sheet off one.

In the mirror, it was clear what a monster this was.

Rey's mom started screaming, and the changeling lunged.

Alex pulled the older woman off the porch and into a run. She nearly threw the woman into the car.

"What the hell -- what the hell?"

Alex didn't answer; she started the car and pulled away from the sidewalk, just as the Olson's garage door started to open.

A huge SUV pulled out into the street behind them.

Alex hit the gas.

*

After making sure that nobody was waiting in the top of the cabin, Claire approached the steps. She pulled a mirror from her pocket, the better not to be seen poking her head in, and eased it over the edge.

A changeling was crouching over a child, sucking at the back of his neck.

She must have moved too quickly, caught its eye, because suddenly it was lunging for her.

Claire dropped the mirror and grabbed her makeshift flamethrower.

She almost got it up in time.

The changeling grabbed her by her ankle and pulled her down, so suddenly she dropped the flamethrower. Claire got her other foot up just in time to brace herself, so she wasn't pulled down into the root cellar. She kicked at the changeling, trying to pull herself free, but it was stronger than a human.

She flopped back, straining for the flamethrower.

*

Alex had barely turned the corner when the big SUV slammed into the back of her car. Rey's mom let out a yelp and got a death grip on the handle.

"Oh my god, oh my god, we're going to die!"

Alex couldn't reassure her and drive, so she focused on her driving.

The next hit nearly sent her car into the ditch. Alex fought the wheel and, somehow, managed to stay on the road.

But the SUV was accelerating toward them again.

*

Claire felt like her ankle was going to break, but she kept stretching. Finally, her fingers closed around the cylinder of the flamethrower.

She used the changeling's grasp on her leg for leverage, and rolled herself up. The changeling smiled eagerly up at her, sure it was about to win.

Instead, Claire opened the lighter and ignited the flamethrower.

*

Alex screamed as her car lost traction, skidding sideways. She hit the gas, but there was no resistance in the damp grass.

"Come on," she shouted, and tried to get Krista out of the car. If they could make it to the line of trees before the changeling made it to them -- 

Krista wasn't moving, just hanging on to the handle.

"We're sitting ducks here!"

She could only watch, helplessly, as the SUV sped up, heading toward them, and she wished she'd told Jody how much she'd meant to her -- 

The changeling threw up her arm, suddenly, and burst into flames. The SUV, nobody at the wheel, passed just inches from the front of the car, close enough that it rocked, before going into the ditch.


	5. The Oldest Rule

The first thing Claire did, after killing the changeling, was get the kids out of their cages. The second thing was to pass around her cell phone. Once everybody had contacted at least one freaked-out adult, and she'd reassured them that the kid they'd just seen turn into a fireball wasn't really their kid, and that she would be bringing their real kid home, she started them on the long hike back to the car. Whenever anybody got too tired, she would carry them until she had to carry somebody else instead.

It was nearly dawn by the time the rag-tag group reached the parking space at the head of the train. Claire loaded everybody in, and set off for civilization.

Looking at the dirty, haunted faces, she wished that she had someone who was good at this, like Jody or Dean, to tell her how to help them.

Dean, she suspected, would probably lead with food.

"Anybody like pancakes?"

*

After leaving Mrs. Olson at a motel, Alex headed back to the group home. "I forgot something" was pretty thin as excuses went, but she spent a minute rummaging in the desk drawer to justify it, before heading down to where the girls were studying.

Since Rey wasn't officially enrolled, no one told Alex she couldn't talk to her for a minute.

"Everything's gotten sorted out. My sister is going to be coming for you in about an hour. She'll say that she's from North Dakota children's services, but she's actually going to bring you to where your mom is staying. She'll be asking for Reylene Smith. Okay?"

Rey looked at her like she still couldn't believe it, but finally, she nodded. "Thank you."

Alex left her, desperate for sleep. But as she headed for the stairs, someone called her name.

She turned around to see the director. "I just -- "

"Forgot something. I heard." Their eyes were compassionate. "You're new, you're young, you're idealistic. I'm not telling this because I think your concern for Rey is wrong, but because I've seen people burn out in this line of work. It's fine to be concerned, but don't get too attached. And remember, you can't save everybody."

She'd been hunter-adjacent long enough to have heard the oldest rule, and to know that it didn't stop hunters from trying. "I'll keep that in mind."

Lafayette sighed, and shook their head. "I'm here if you need to talk."

*

It took Claire nearly fifteen minutes to nerve herself up to walk through the door of the group home. She was sure, when she walked in, that they would spot her, they would know she was an impostor, they would never let her leave, nineteen or not.

But she couldn't leave a kid here who had a family.

The clerk on duty checked the forged papers, taking long enough that she started to worry, but then nodded. "Wait here."

Five minutes later, she was back with a girl who looked on the surface to be about twelve, but with a wariness to her eyes that told Claire that she'd seen things that she'd never forget.

The jealousy that Claire hadn't even been aware of dissolved in her chest. "Come on," she said. "It's time to get you back to your family."

**Author's Note:**

> This will probably be Jossed tomorrow. Oh well!


End file.
